Disney’s Ponyo On Blu-Ray And DVD Review

March 2, 2010 | by Disney Dreaming

Today, March 2, 2010, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has released the movie “Ponyo” on Blu-ray and DVD. The movie is based off of the Hans Christian Andersen tale “The Little Mermaid.”

The movie was created by legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and features hand-drawn animation. The two lead character voices are done by Bonus Jonas, Frankie Jonas and the youngest Cyrus sister, Noah Cyrus.

Ponyo Movie Trailer

This is the first film from Hayao Miyazaki to be available on Blu-ray disc. John Lasseter serves as executive producer of the English-language version of Ponyo, and is joined by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall on the project.

The movie stars the voices of:
- Frankie Jonas (as Sosuke)
- Noah Cyrus (as Ponyo)
- Cate Blanchett
- Matt Damon
- Tina Fey
- Liam Neeson
- Cloris Leachman
- Betty White
- Lily Tomlin

“Walking on the beach near his home, a five-year old boy named Sosuke (voiced by Frankie Jonas) finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle. He releases the tiny creature and, sure that she is no ordinary fish, names his new friend Ponyo (Noah Lindsey Cyrus). As Ponyo and Sosuke grow closer, she reveals to him that she is the daughter of a powerful wizard (Liam Neeson) and a sea goddess (Cate Blanchett), and magically transforms herself into a real human girl. But by crossing from her watery world onto land, Ponyo has created a dangerous imbalance in nature. As the moon begins to draw closer to the earth, sea levels rise and a giant tsunami threatens to destroy Sosuke’s home. Ponyo’s father marshals all his might to find his missing daughter, as the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to try and save the world.”

Review: We thought this movie was ADORABLE. It helped that we recognized the voices of Frankie and Noah and we couldn’t help but smile when their characters on screen were talking to each other because we could imagine them having a conversation in person.

We also recognized a lot of small similarities between Ponyo and “The Little Mermaid,” which is one of our favorite classic Disney movies. From Ponyo wanting to be a human, to the small castle underwater that Ponyo and her brothers and sisters live in.

We thought that all of the characters in the film were fun and meshed well together – from Sosuke’s mother to the women at the nursing home she cared for and Sosuke’s father and shipmate.

Ponyo’s character is full of energy and even when she causes a huge wave to put the entire town underwater no one seems to mind because they are happy that Ponyo has come to visit.

This is for sure a DVD that you want to own so you and your family can watch Ponyo experience life as a fish, then a human, then a fish again – but does she turn into a human for good? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out!

And we have to admit, we LOVED the credit song for Ponyo, sung by Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas – which you can listen to here.

Bonus Features on the DVD include:
- The World of Ghibli- Allows fans to immerse themselves in the amazing worlds from each film created by legendary filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki in this multi-layered interactive experience. Lands to explore include:
• PONYO’S Land
• KIKI’S Land
• CASTLE’S Land
• TOTORO’S Land
- Behind the Studio- Unprecedented access to all the background, inspiration and process behind he making of Ponyo and the inner workings of Studio Ghibli through a series of documentaries. They include all new interviews with Hayao Miyazaki, and composer Joe Hisaishi. Also included in this feature are:
• Creating Ponyo
• Ponyo & Fujimoto
• The Nursery
• Behind the Microphone: The Voice of Ponyo
• Producers Perspective: Telling the Story
• Scoring Miyazaki
• The Scenery in Ghibli
• Original Japanese Trailer

Ponyo is available in stores today for $39.99 (Blu-ray Hi-Def) and $29.99 (2-Disc DVD).

Watch clips of Ponyo below:

Teaching Ponyo

Free

Car Ride

Ponyo Returns

Telling The Story

Ponyo & Fujimoto

Review Materials Provided By Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment